


The Faults You Left Behind

by sinuous_curve



Category: Inception (2010)
Genre: M/M, qldfloodauction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-01-14
Updated: 2011-01-14
Packaged: 2017-10-14 18:29:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,053
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/152185
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sinuous_curve/pseuds/sinuous_curve
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>The first time Saito dreams about Robert Fischer, he wakes to the cool darkness of his bedroom with his hand stretched out to empty air and the memory of murmured words echoing in the quiet hush. His heart beats fast beneath his ribs and he can hear the controlled, sighing in and out of his own breath. </i></p>
            </blockquote>





	The Faults You Left Behind

**Author's Note:**

> Written for enigel as a part of the qldfloodauction@LJ lightening round.

The first time Saito dreams about Robert Fischer, he wakes to the cool darkness of his bedroom with his hand stretched out to empty air and the memory of murmured words echoing in the quiet hush. His heart beats fast beneath his ribs and he can hear the controlled, sighing in and out of his own breath.

It was not a nightmare, or a dream bought with chemicals. It was just a dream.

Saito lies still in his bed. It is an odd thing, to remember that dreams can sometimes be simply dreams. That not every picture that passes by his sleeping eyes is created by the hands and minds of others. _Sometimes_ it is just him and his thoughts, however sharply real the bright blue of Robert Fischer's eyes might have seemed.

He touches the back of his hand almost absently, seeking the assurance of his skin. There's no little black mark on top of a vein, no bump of tubing. Just bone and sinew and himself. Saito sighs and closes his eyes and does not sleep, because it is a far more difficult thing to convince his mind that Fischer is not in danger. That it has all passed exactly as Saito wanted.

It is possible, on a second consideration, that it is a more difficult thing to play at being a god than he thought.

Three days later, he sees Fischer for the first time since the plane landed in Los Angeles. It is, in many ways, a highly inevitable encounter. Fischer, much to the shock of the world, is dismantling the terrible house his father forged. If Fischer himself will not speak of his motives, Saito can decipher them, for he was there at their birth. In Fischer's controlled destruction he can sense the seeds of new creation.

It makes Saito think of fires burning and from the ash coming small sprigs of green. Fragile, yes, but with great potential. Saito never told Cobb of the potential he has always seen in Robert Fischer.

Saito is acquiring certain carefully chosen Fischer companies. It is somewhat difficult to remember the specter of a private superpower that compelled him to action, and how one must always be careful not to become the monsters they hunt. Hypocrisy is not an admirable trait and Saito has lived a life with time to reflect.

The meeting with Fischer and his representatives is overtly cordial and successful. All parties may walk from the table satisfied. No one can possibly notice Saito's heart beginning to beat faster at the small quirks of Robert Fischer; the way his fingers play with each other as he thinks and the small, private smile as he signs the papers. It speaks of freedom and a newfound faith.

Curiously, it is sitting across from Robert Fischer that Saito has his own moment of revelation, brought in a half-remembered remark of Mr. Eames. "Inception can change everyone involved, mind," he'd said. "Not just the subject."

Saito remembers very clearly being told to protect Fischer, just as remembers the pain of a bullet and the copper tang of blood in his mouth.

It occurs to him that he could be angry. But it is just, he decides. In changing Fischer, he changed himself. There's a balance there.

Saito can admit the lack of wisdom in seeking out Robert Fischer after the conclusion of their business. They have always been rivals in an unspoken sense, the way that giants of industry oppose each other in ways that have nothing to do with the people behind them. But he is an old man in a young man's body and there is a need he cannot explain sitting beneath his skin.

He finds Robert in the hotel bar, with a drink in his hand. His eyes are still very blue.

When Robert sees Saito, it perhaps does mean something that there is no wariness or surprise in his eyes. It is as though he has been expecting to see Saito each time he looked up. "We've never met before today, have we?" Robert asks, tracing his thumb along the edge of his glass. "Sorry, that's a stupid question. I know we haven't."

Saito looks at Robert and sees a young man who is trying very hard not to be a boy with a broken heart. He almost wishes to apologize, for the things he has done in the name of a greater good and for the things Robert has endured that Saito cannot and could not have changed. He wishes to brush back the hair from Robert's forehead and to press his mouth to the inside of Robert's wrist.

He wishes with quiet, unfulfilled intensity to wrap himself around Robert and shield him from the whole of the world.

It is strange to realize he no longer cares where the feeling came from. Whether it has existed for a very long time or if it was planted in his mind as surely as the urge to dismantle was planted in Robert's.

"Have you ever wanted to do something irrational?" Robert asks, draining the rest of his drink. He straightens and looks at Saito. "Just because it seemed like the better thing to do."

Saito contacted a man named Cobb. He has seen the weapons that lived in Robert's mind. "Yes," Saito says. "More so lately."

Robert laughs a little, running a hand through his hair. He seems not only tired, but weary. Saito remembers his dream in little pieces and what comes is desire, settling on his bones as though it has always been there. Saito does not believe in leaps of faith and he does not easily take chances.

And yet, it is difficult for him to believe Robert is a chance.

And so he extends his hand. Robert looks at Saito's upturned palm and closes his eyes for a moment. Saito imagines, though he of course cannot know, that Robert feels the same sense of things slipping into place. And perhaps one day he will need to know what it is so, but that day is very far away from the hotel bar at night.

"Okay," Robert says. He takes Saito's hand for a moment and squeezes. It is an assurance of life and reality. And they leave the bar walking side by side.


End file.
